“I’d like to know why he repeated it, though,” Mr. Stratton said. “He must have done, as I do not think Lady Pegatha would have had cause to.”
“I’d like to know why too,” Verity said. “He’s come to the house twice and maybe he came to say why, but I could not see him.”
“The queen’s told her to stay indoors and see nobody,” Serenity said.
“I like the queen,” Valor said. “You should stay inside forever, Verity.”
“It’s only for a few days, Val,” Grace said.
“It could be longer!” Valor said. “The queen might mean longer.”
“I’m sorry,” Lord Dashlend said, “are we not to mention the other three prints going round?”
Other three prints? Why would there be others? Was she to be mocked incessantly? Was not one caricature enough? Who were these spiteful people making up these prints to ridicule her just because she’d said one stupid thing?
“What other three prints?” Mr. Stratton asked.
“The ones depicting Lord Wembly,” Lord Dashlend said. “One has got his posterior on fire and names him not very stoic, another has him slumped in a chair and named spineless, and the other has him on a fainting couch with a vinaigrette.”
Verity felt her insides go cold. It was bad enough that she was mocked, but now there were direct salvos at Lord Wembly? Three of them? Why?
“Well now, the spineless one was from me,” the duke said. “I felt compelled to answer his failing to appear at Lady Jellerbey’s dim indoor picnic on account of a teasing. Thought I’d put some starch in him. Of course, if he’s come to the house to apologize, that might have been a mistake.”
“But Papa,” Verity said, “what if he did not come to apologize? What if he is infuriated to be mocked in three different prints? And who made the other two?”
“Calm yourself, Verity,” Felicity said. “A gentleman would never come to express his indignation directly to a lady of his acquaintance.”
“Quite right,” Mr. Stratton said. “If a gentleman wished to yell about it, he’d yell to his friends, not to the lady in question. It would be very bad form.”
“He might see the duke about it,” Lord Thorpe pointed out. “If he really wished to take things far.”
“Yes,” Mr. Stratton said. “He might see the duke about it.”
All four gentlemen laughed heartily at the notion that anybody would have the temerity and lack of sense to come to the duke to complain about one of his daughters.
“Then he really would have his posterior on fire, eh?” the duke said, joining in on the laughter.
“Who did make the other two, though?” Serenity asked.
“I can make some guesses,” the duke said. “That not very stoic comment smacks of Mrs. Right—we all know how ready to come to the defense of my girls she is. And then the vinaigrette is certainly Queen Charlotte. It is one of her preferred insults. Everybody remembers when Lord Destin was forever complaining about the waltz being allowed into England. Shefamously asked him if he needed to borrow her vinaigrette and not a word was heard from him after that.”
Verity took up her wine. It had been bad enough to wonder if Lord Wembly would be able to see past the print going round about her. Now there were three going round abouthim! She well knew her papa and Mrs. Right, and even the queen, she supposed, had meant to be helpful. But how was a gentleman to see past all of that? And that was before she’d even mentioned the idea that she could not read. There did not seem to be any way he could look past all of it. It would be too much for any gentleman.
“It’s hopeless,” she said. “I just wish to go home.”
“Let’s go,” Valor said, championing the idea.
“Why do you say so, Verity?” Grace asked. “The rest of us have faced some…circumstances. We’ve come out all right.”
“I’llsay there were circumstances,” Lord Dashlend said with a laugh. Mr. Stratton, Lord Stanford, and Lord Thorpe all nodded in his direction to acknowledge the truth of it.
“I just know that this particular case is hopeless,” Verity said.
“There it is. Totally hopeless,” Valor said, seeming delighted over the hopelessness of her sister’s fortunes.
“It cannot be hopeless,” Patience said. “It only feels hopeless. We’ve all felt it at one time or another, but then it turns out not to be true.”
“It is true this time,” Verity said. “Winsome knows why.”
